Aira looked around herself. The cil Hall bore the scars of its tumultuous history. Once grand and anding, its broken doors sagged on their hinges, and blood stains streaked the once-pristine marble floor, remnants of the chaos that had unfolded here. Even the bahat once hung in pride now looked useless, fotten in the hollow silence.

  She'd been in this world for only a few months, and how much this cil Hall had ged already. When she was first brought here, she was disoriented and silehere were so many people here then. All dead now.

  Aira moved around the grand room and found the exact spot where she stood when Li brought that fateful steboard. Would her friend's voice still carry the warmth Aira remembered?

  No. It wouldn't.

  Aira knew well enough that the undead had issues with their vocal cords. She was a good example of that, even if she didn't know the reason.

  Or, what was even worse, would she be hollow, like the gnarlfang she once raised? The thought sent a chill through her core, but Aira pushed it aside.

  "Everything is going to be alright," she thought. "I'll get her back."

  Neunion (Level 8 / 2,187 SP to upgrade to Level 9)- ce of boosting cooperation among high-level undead.- You sehe undead and s their stats.- Ritual: You raise medium-sized anisms as undead. Energy ption: low.- Maximum skill use distance: [1.25 km x Level] = 126 kmUpgrade further [Y/N]?

  Aira looked through the broken doors. She could sense people slowly moving in the side rooms, too scared to go out. They were barrig there, only occasionally risking peeking out and cheg what the undead beast was doing. They weren't a target for her anymore. Aira roared at no one in particur, making most of the hide.

  "So, who's going to be the Elder?" Aira thought distractedly while leaving the building. "Thanks to me, they are going through them pretty fast."

  Outside, the faint murmur of townsfolk huddled in fear reached her ears. From the cracks in shuttered windows, wide eyes stared out. Mothers pressed their children to their chests, muttering prayers to gods they hadn't thought of in years.

  "The town is waking up," Aira thought. "Don’t worry, you aren't on the menu today…"

  ***

  Aira returo Li's cell to find out the rat was still there, near her friend's body. The rodent wasn't in good shape, with small wounds c its body. Around Li's bunk, y a few corpses of gnawis.

  "Ah, so you were useful," thought Aira, approag the small animal and stroking its fur. "It's funny that they don't have beavers in this world but rats… Rats are everywhere. Here, let me at least boost you. Maybe your health will replenish faster this way."

  ========== Character Status and Skill Overview ==========Name: Adult RatRace: Undead RatCss: RatLevel: 3

  --- Current Status ---Health: 4/63Mana: ???/???SP Used: 0SP Avaible: 7XP: 7,000 / 10,000 ( Level: 4, Initiate)

  "Oh, you rascal!" thought Aira with warmth. "Level three already! Let me do what I came here for, and we'll think about what to do with you ter."

  With that, Aira switched her attention to the dead body of her friend. Somehow, after this rampage through the human town, Li seemed peaceful to Aira. Serene. Or maybe it was just rigor mortis setting in.

  Aira touched her friend's cheek once again. Preparing herself to perform the raising. The energy she accumuted from all these rangers and guards was boiling inside her, risking to spill over. But Aira couldn't allow it. She couldn't waste it. And she didn't know how much of this power she would need for what had to be done.

  As with the gnarlfang, the ritual wasn't something eborate. She'd probably even just call it a spell. Aira didn't o prepare anything, draw are symbols on the floor, in additional people for accumuting and fog the elemental magic like the enlightened did.

  She began by fog on her Neunion skill and beginning to gradually move the energy she gathered towards a new goal: raising Li as an undead.

  As Aira drew the swirling energy toward Li's body, the air thied, pressing down on her shoulders like a storm about to break. Frost began to creep across the walls, and the faint st of ozoingled in her nostrils. Even the undead rat darted into the shadows, chittering nervously as the prison walls groaned, seemingly in protest of the unnatural forces. The prisoners in the nearby cells suddenly became silent and still. Every person in the viity of the buildi something… unnatural.

  But that wasn’t the end of it, the sensation spread even further.

  "What are you doing now, Aira?" sent Alliot through the party chat. "What kind of ritual is that? You know I'll have to report that to Ainorrh!"

  Aira ignored him. There was nothing he could do to prevent Aira from following the pn. A wild grin appeared on her face as she felt ambient energy shifting and moving around her.

  It was time for the decisive step.

  Aira scooped all the energy she could read, with her skill, sent it toward the corpse of her friend.

  Li's body was covered with fshes of ethereal light and tiny lightnings that reminded Aira of the se she just wit the cil Hall. Was she doing it wrong? Was her skill level still not patible with humans? Was she making it even worse?

  "No, it 't be," thought Aira. "How could it be worse? She's already dead."

  With that thought, Aira doubled her efforts, intensifying the push of her are powers toward Li. The human's body was jittering, and the glow only intensified.

  "Was there a glow when I transformed that gnarlfang?" thought Aira. "For sure, it took much less time to do that."

  Suddenly, Li's body emitted a series nant g sounds. Li's body jerked violently, her limbs snapping into pce with siing cracks that echoed through the cell. Aira's heart wrenched as she watched dark veins spidering across Li's pale skin, pulsing faintly as if seeking life where there was none. Now, only the dried blood remihat Li was ever tortured.

  "What?!?" Aira thought. “What the hell???“

  This was no ordinary use of Neunion. Even while she only did the ritual twice before, Aira could feel the intricate web of energy threads she wove straining against her will, threatening to snap and sh back at her. Raising a human—no, raising Li—was rewriting the boundaries of what her skill could achieve. The sheer scope of it threateo e her reserves faster thaicipated. Aira was losing her energized state quite fast, feeling the reserves that seemed fathomless moments ago depleting.

  But this time, finally, she felt the limits much better than before. She should have enough. Aira khat. She believed in that.

  Not only Li's body was ging. The ambien the whole of the prison had shifted. If the people in other cells were silent before, now they have bee active and even agitated. Some of them screamed, others moaned and wailed.

  "Final push," thought Aira. "It has to work!"

  Aira felt a voice trying to reach out to her from somewhere far away. Something about following the rules. Aira didn't care about that whisper anymore. Just a feeble sensation that was really hard to trate on.

  ***

  Alliot was intrigued by the humalement. Without any magic, they were able to survive here and evee at least some protective barriers. They even withheld his attacks for a while. And he was trained in defending and breaking defenses.

  Trained in the are ways, not the primitive measures the humans could ht now. Ultimately, it all turned into an exercise in removing rubble for them. It seemed the rangers didn't even figure out there was a se power behind all this devastation, so well Alliot used the force of wind and nature to hide his attack.

  "They're swarming the breach," he sent his report to Aira. It was time for her to move.

  After that initial moment of violence, everything was retively peaceful for some time. Periodically, Alliot had to hit one segment of the wall or ao keep the humans busy. But it seemed that most of the town's rangers should have gathered here he damaged part of the wall.

  His part of the mission was goiirely acc to the pn.

  It eaceful until it wasn't. Alliot blinked, and some force stormed in so fast that Alliot couldn't eve. Only its effects.

  And he felt it well enough. Without any doubt, it was Aira. Mere moments after her arrival, the se ged pletely. All the rangers were now dead. Not only dead, but they became withered husks, all energy sucked out of them.

  Alliot could feel a maelstrom of elemental energy electrifying the air for a few seds, sending ripples all around the area. And then, it all was gone as if it never existed.

  "But that's against our principles!" thought Alliot. "We had an agreement! What am I to do now? Should I reach out to Ainorrh?"

  Alliot's fingers hovered over the unication artifatrusted to him, his usual precision faltering. His mind raced—Aira was vioting every principle of their order, yet the sheer force of her power pulled at something deep within him. He ched his fists, his jaw tightening. Was this awe… or dread?

  However, while Alliot aralyzed by indecision, Aira wasn't waiting. Alliot could sense even more humans perishing under her attacks. It was hard to be sure, but it felt like Aira had extinguished and ed a hundred human energy signatures.

  "A hundred lives…" Alliot thought. "Such a waste. So many new enlightened could have beeed instead."

  But it wasn't the end of this dark night yet. Something even more sinister was brewing. Wheual began, Alliot could feel familiar sensations. He remembered it from his own transformation and from the rare occasions when he had a ce to witransitions of younger enlightened.

  "No… She isn't…" Alliot thought. "That's not possible. Li is already dead! This is s!"

  Alliot, positioned oskirts of the towhe surge of elemental energy. It wasn't ultimately patible with the fvor he was familiar with the most: Air. But still, Alliot was able the patterns. His eyes widened in arm, aried to warn Aira through the party chat, but she was beyond reach. The e was there, but her mind was closed off, too ed by the ritual to respond.

  "Aira, stop! You don't have to do this!" Alliot's mental plea went unanswered.

  He felt the desperation aermination in Aira's as and knew he couldn't stop her. The power she wielded was too great, her resolve too fierce.

  Alliot felt the power building, his magical senses sounding arms. The fvor of this magic was simultaneously antagonistic to everything he knew because of his affinity, but in some ways, very familiar, calling to something deep inside of him. What was that? Why was he lured by this obviously destructive power that went against everything he held dear in his life?

  Moments ter, it was all fihe energy was raving no more.

  "I o do something," he thought. "Judgment will e ter. And I o gain information. I'll have to give my report to the shamans."

  As he made a decisive step over the ruined wall's rubble, Alliot could only mourn the lost lives and opportunities.

  ***

  The ritual demanded all of her—her attention and her energy. Her hands trembled as she pressed them to Li's chest, the faint warmth of her friend's skin a cruel reminder of what she had lost. Or was it the warmth from her magic?

  Aira's breathing quied, ing in shallos, her vision blurring as she funneled every ounce of energy into the ritual. "Just a little more," she told herself, though the doubt cwed at the edges of her mind.

  She gathered everythi within, and there was almost nothing there to find without. In the prison and its viity, no mers were left. No more people who Aira ned as ehe trees on the square were destroyed by her earlier spark of anger. If she didn't want to make more human sacrifices, she'd have to hope what she had would be enough.

  How far away did she step from her initial path. Aira smiled wickedly. What she did today was truly a dark ritual with human sacrifices. Even if she tried to silence her sciousness with thoughts of revenge, punishment, and justice. It was what it was. There was no good in denying the truth.

  Aira needed skill points. She hat energy. So, she went out there and took what she needed.

  Was that her path from now on? Should she just raise an undead army and bee the dark lord of this world?

  She smirked. Aira could uhe true nature of these 'enlightened.' The System khey were just undead like her, not some sublime beings.

  They firmed… they fessed that they were turning humans. How did Ainorrh call that process? Transformation? Transdence?

  It didn't really matter. They were the same.

  Afraid to see that her efforts were in vain, Aira stole a g Li. Her friend's body stopped shivering. Any motion seized. Her hair, previously bright green, was now dirty and bloodied. But the ges weren't only superficial. Streaks of white were now seen in Li's hair, even from under all that muck.

  Aira took Li's hand in hers, but there was nothing to sehere. Even probing with Neunion didn't bring as either.

  "Did I do something wrong?" Aira thought.

  Suddenly, she felt the vibe in the prison shift once again. The silence was deafening, punctuated only by the faint rustle of s as the people held here shifted nervously in their cells. People were silent. In fear? Or exhaustion? It didn't matter for Aira anymore. She was happy if they just didn't get in her way.

  Eve stopped squeaking and cautiously moved toward Aira.

  "Ah, you are still here," Aira smiled, finally finding a way to distract herself from her ordeal. "You are a little defender, aren't you. Should I call you Al? Would you like that?"